Friends Since Grade School

Eddie Kendricks - "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye", "If You Let Me"
Paul Williams - "Feel Like Givin' Up"
From: One by One: The Best of Their Solo Years [March 19, 1996].

Approximately three years ago I purchased One by One: The Best of Their Solo Years on a limb. Priced at $9.99 (I think) for a double-disc of solo Temptations' songs should not be an "on a limb" purchase, but memories of Eddie Kendricks' "Keep On Trucking" scared my ears and I was tempted to lose faith in solo Temptation efforts. Long-story-short, while on Amazon I noticed this album is pricey and possibly a rarity (can double-disc CDs be rare?). I would never charge people between $46.99 and $99.00 for this CD, but I do want to get rid of it. I will trade One by One: The Best of Their Solo Years for something. I like sneakers, T-shirts, design, rap and vintage NBA. I am looking for a great biography on Jerry Wexler so that would be a dope trade, I'd even toss in something extra. Let's get our Internet trade on.

The Songs

The post-Temptations produced a catalog of notable singles that scaled Billboard charts for nearly a decade. Although Eddie Kendricks' success didn't yield several top ten singles like David Ruffin, his charisma tackled any doubt that his solo career was not relevant. Falsetto melodies like "Can I" and "Eddie's Love" possessed a signature warmth that Kendricks comanded over arrangments by the likes of Norman Harris.

Frank Wilson produced "It's So Hard For Me To Say Goodbye" and Tamala-Motown's David Van De Pitte arranged the song. He was known for arranging Marvin Gaye's scribbles that inspired What's Going On and several Motown singles that hooked Americans (notably white America) to catchy pop that was the anthem for a decade. The arrangement is perfect on "It's So Hard For Me To Say Goodbye," but the song did not do well on the charts (37 on the R&B chart 88 on the pop chart) and that underminds the beauty of what Van De Pitte did. The backup vocals, arrangement and Kendricks lead could be labeled as some early-Temptations single formula and perhaps that is why this single did not climb Billboard charts like "Keep On Truckin'." Female backups harmonize with Kendricks' falsetto vocals, but Van De Pitte's arrangement is the key element in this song. In under one minute Van De Pitte introduces a small orchestra and creates Motown magic.

In July 2005, Monkeyfunk put me on Paul Nice's cut up rendition of Kendricks' "If You Let Me" and around the same time I rediscovered that I owned (on compilation) this classic from People... Hold On. Wilson and Van De Pitte teamed up with Kendricks to make a single that could have charted higher (17 on the R&B chart and 66 on the pop chart) if released four years earlier in 1968 during a pre-psychedelic soul era. In 1972 Gilbert O' Sullivan and Roberta Flack stormed the charts for a combined 12 weeks at number one and it is no suprise that Motown had to adjust to a changing market. Norman Whitfield tried to mold a new Motown with acts like Rose Royce and The Undisputed Truth, but that fizzled and Whitfield left Motown in 1975 to head his own label, W Records (Whitfield Records). Kendricks' falsetto gift fell ill from constant smoking and in 1992 he died from lung cancer.

The suicide of Paul Williams reduced his legacy to newspaper headlines on August 17, 1973 when he shot himself near Hitsville USA (in 1972 Motown relocated to L.A.). Kendricks tried to save Williams' career by co-producing and co-writing "I Feel Like Givin' Up" and had Williams not commited suicide he may have had a hit. Although Motown's Gordy Records wanted to B-side the song with "Once You Had a Heart," Williams' suicide made executives shelf the single, because the lyrics matched emotions that were too coincidental to his suicide. The single was released on Motown Year By Year: The Sound of Young America, 1973 and later on One by One: The Best of Their Solo Years. This song is a powerful ballad that has the momentum of a Billboard Top Ten, because Williams comands Bill White's arrangement that is lead by Williams' raw emotion.

One by One: The Best of Their Solo Years is a nice find with a string of David Ruffin singles including "Common Man," a song that Jay-Z immortalized on The Blueprint's "Never Change." Another interesting single rap revived is "Don't Look Any Further" by Dennis Edwards and used for Tu Pac's anti-homage to Biggie Smalls, "Hit `Em Up" (and an obvious Eric B and Rakim's "Paid In Full"). Rumor is that Chaka Khan was supposed to sing with Edwards on "Don't Look Any Further" and Khan flaked leaving Edwards in a pinch (Siedah Garrett replaced Khan).